A lot of people thought Alger Hiss got a raw deal when he was convicted of perjury while being investigated as a Soviet spy at the height of the Red Scare in 1950. Hiss, a high-ranking State Department official, was convicted partly as a result of the testimony of a zealous young politician named Richard Nixon, just then making a name for himself. Now a federal judge has ruled that all the grand jury transcripts from the Hiss case -- which have been stubbornly guarded by the government for years -- should be made public. Historians, naturally, are elated. It can be presumed that others are less enthusiastic. In any case, this should make for some pretty good reading.
The Hiss Files
A lot of people thought Alger Hiss got a raw deal when he was convicted of perjury while being investigated as a Soviet spy at the height of the Red Scare in 1950. Hiss, a high-ranking State Department official, was convicted partly as a result of the testimony of a zealous young politician named Richard Nixon, just then making a name for himself. Now a federal judge has ruled that all the grand jury transcripts from the Hiss case -- which have been stubbornly guarded by the government for years -- should be made public. Historians, naturally, are elated. It can be presumed that others are less enthusiastic. In any case, this should make for some pretty good reading.
